Sydneysiders
threw back the blankets overnight as the city experienced its warmest
September night on record. The temperature dropped to just 22.0
degrees at 12.45am, 0.1 above the previous record set in 1946. Records
at the
Observatory Hill site go back to 1858.
Elsewhere, as shown in the lower map at right, minimum temperatures
were 10 degrees or more above average through northern NSW, southern and
western QLD and eastern NT. The greatest departures from average were
in northern NSW where Collarenebri, Gunnedah and Brewarrina were all 14
or 15C above normal.
The heatwave continued today along the NSW North and Mid North Coasts
and through southern QL, though top temperartures were marginally lower
than yesterday.
Gusty
gale force winds were blamed by stewards today for a 5-horse
fall in the 7th race at Werribee VIC this afternoon. Close to the end
of the
race, the horse running second was blown onto the heels of the leader,
bringing down five other mounts. The remaining race on the card was cancelled
by the wind. At Royal Melbourne Show, wind dislodged a chairlift cable
from its pulley assembley around 4pm, stranding 38 riders for 90 minutes.
Late this evening, the wind also caused structural damage to a Mt Buller
chairlift, causing it to derail when started on Thursday. In the early
hours of this morning, wind brought down trees onto high tension
powerlines
near
Wangaratta
and
near Springhurst,
25km
northeast,
blacking out over 2,000 homes. The highest recorded wind gusts in VIC
were 121km/h on the summit of Mt Hotham, 113 at Lookout Hill east of
Ararat, 108 on Mt Gellibrand south of Colac, and 106 at Wilsons Promintory
and Aireys Inlet.
High winds were also recorded in NSW, SA and TAS,
and are shown in Gales and Gusts. There
were no thoughts of heatwaves in TAS, where snow was reported overnight
at Lake St Clair and Liawenee, and during the day at Cradle Mountain
Airstrip. Wind at Strahan Aerodrome reached 109km/h late in the afternoon.
Sources: AAP, ABC, News.com, Border mail, Wangaratta Chronicle |